Can you trust a label?

Labels are extremely useful, but they also have their limitations. I once received a ‘free’ pack of seeds with a parcel of plants. The picture looked interesting, so I planted them but what came up were not the plants in the picture but some very ordinary violas. I was a bit miffed, but at least they hadn’t cost me any money.

What about religious ‘labels’? Useful, quite often, but also potentially misleading. If someone is baptised in infancy, should they be stuck with the label “Christian” for their whole life even if they reject their parents’ beliefs?

With labels comes also the temptation to categorise and stereotype. Not all Christians (or Muslims, or any other group) are the same. There are some atheists who seem to assume that all believers come from religious families and have been indoctrinated in their youth. Sorry, but that just isn’t the case. (There are also some believers who seem to think that all atheists are immoral – which is equally untrue) And sadly, there are also Christians who distrust other Christians, simply because they have a different denominational ‘label’.

Jesus said, “By their fruits you shall know them.” In other words, don’t judge by the label. But, being human, we do.